The present invention relates to a process and an apparatus for the thermal treatment of coal, for example for the drying and/or preheating of ground coal, before the coal is introduced into a coking or gasification furnace or oven.
There are presently known various processes for drying and/or preheating ground coal before the charging thereof into a coking or gasification furnace or oven. However, such systems involve drying and/or preheating the coal in one or several flue flow tubes by means of hot gases. Thus, the systems for performing these known processes are very complex, and also these known processes require the availability of the necessary hot gases. An additional disadvantage of such known processes involves the fact that during the drying and/or preheating, there is generated very fine coal dust due to a reduction in the grain size of the coal during passage through the flue flow tubes, and the generation of such very fine coal dust presents a safety hazard due to the danger of explosion.